The Kissing Booth – Beth Reekles

Meet Rochelle Evans: pretty, popular–and never been kissed. Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile–and a total player. And also Elle’s best friend’s older brother…

When Elle decides to run a kissing booth for the school’s Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer–this romance seems far from fairy tale and headed for heartbreak.

But will Elle get her happily ever after?

When I first picked up The Kissing Booth, I fell in love. The story is about Elle, a sixteen (almost seventeen) year-old girl who has had a crush on her best friend Lee’s older brother, Noah, for as long as she can remember. Being on the school council, Elle and Lee have to create a booth for the school carnival. So, of course they decide on a kissing booth!

After years of fighting her attraction for Noah, Elle finally gets her first kiss from him at the kissing booth. Now she must come to the realization that Noah has feelings for her, but she also must fight the attraction so as not to jeopardize her friendship with Lee. What will Elle choose?

I swept through about 75% of this book in a matter of hours, and I completed the rest of it shortly after., and it really all comes down to Noah. He is so freaking gorgeous! I would be about to put the book down, and then Noah would make an appearance at the end of a chapter, and I just HAD to read more about him. Ladies (and guys!), if you are looking for a new YA book crush…this one is for you! (Goodreads doesn’t have The Kissing Booth labeled as a new adult book, but it totally is. There is sooooo much steam in this book. I loved it!)

Some people might end up having a problem with The Kissing Booth, because they might think that Elle and Noah’s relationship was a bit of a abusive/dangerous relationship. You don’t have to verbally or physically abuse someone to abuse them, and neither of those things happen in this book. However, Noah is very protective and commanding. Personally, I did not have a problem with the book, but I can definitely see why some people would be a bit uncomfortable with that type of relationship.

My big big big big complaint with The Kissing Booth was the relationship between Elle and her father. I hated the father, and I found them to have a very odd and uncomfortable relationship. I’m sorry…but most teenage girls are not going to tell their dad that they spent the night in a hotel room with a guy they’re not even dating. Also, the dad was a jerk. I hated reading about him.

As a couple, I loved Elle and Noah. I thought that they were super cute. I couldn’t get enough of them. However, Elle started to massively get on my nerves toward the end of the book, because she just couldn’t make up her mind! One minute she wanted Noah, but then the next minute she didn’t. And that didn’t just happen once! It happened a million freaking times! And since Elle could never make up her mind, I didn’t get to see Elle and Noah’s relationship hit the level that I thought it deserved.

I loved this book so much, but I was not a big fan of the ending. After falling in love with Noah and Elle, I was left crushed when it was time to say goodbye. Supposedly, Beth Reekles is creating a sequel to The Kissing Booth. If that’s the case, it needs to have a better ending than this one did. For the most part, this book was 5 stars. It was the last 100 pages of the book that docked it down to a 3.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was cute and fresh…and totally a summer read! I would definitely recommend that all contemporary lovers give The Kissing Booth a chance!

Pages: 448

Publication Date: May 14th, 2013

Publisher: Ember (Random House)

Rating: [rating: 3]

Teaser Quote: “Wow. Death by books. That would have been some way to go.”